Movies like The Portrait of Love (2021)
The best movies like The Portrait of Love (2021) are The Kindness of Strangers (2019), The Pumpkin Eater (1964) and What Maisie Knew (2013). If The Portrait of Love hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCharm City Kings (2020)7.8/10 from 508 votes
- NewestCaught by the Tides (2024)Released 2024
- In ChineseCaught by the Tides (2024)Also in Chinese
The Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCaught by the Tides (2024)
Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Visit (1964)
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Dead (1987)
After a convivial holiday dinner party, things begin to unravel when a husband and wife address some prickly issues concerning their marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boys from Fengkuei (1983)
Ah-Ching and his friends have just finished school in their island fishing village, and now spend most of their time drinking and fighting. Three of them decide to go to the port city of Kaohsiung to look for work. They find an apartment through relatives, and Ah-Ching is attracted to the girlfriend of a neighbor. There they face the harsh realities of the big city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPickpocket (1997)
A small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCharm City Kings (2020)
Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEl Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFarming (2018)
Based on the writer/director's childhood, FARMING tells the story of a young Nigerian boy, 'farmed out' by his parents to a white British family in the hope of a better future. Instead, he becomes the feared leader of a white skinhead gang.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWe Outlaws (2018)
By day Chen Shi works in a textiles factory and at night dons a red dress and takes to the dance hall. We Outlaws is the story of just one of countless Trans and non-binary people who lived their lives in secret during an era of strict governmental prohibition, their very existence a crime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Waiting for Love (2007)
Three scenes about three couples with each portraying maybe the turning point of their relationship. First scene, Lim & Amelia are a couple who had been together for almost five years. While he works as a salesman and trying to save up for marriage, the girl are not sure if he’s the one she wants to marry. One day he confronts her about a letter from her admirer. Second scene, Pete & Bernice are a couple who had been together almost ten years. They’re not married because he doesn’t believe in marriage. While she tags along, one day she might realizes this may not be the man she wants to end up with. Third scene, we see Amy & Lai are a pair of secret lovers. This maybe their last meeting or maybe not. They may had loved each other in the past they may not now in this scene. This is the third and final part of James Lee's Love Trilogy which takes offers a glimpse of the life of three lovers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
THE ONLY SONS (2003)
The film is about the north of Guangdong a village farmer water life tragic story, in order to live, in order to be able to let his sister read, in order to be able to raise money to keep the death penalty brother. Sell blood, sell son, even sell his wife, finally sister did not continue to read and ran to Shenzhen to work, made the death penalty brother finally also can not keep life, A water finally because of selling blood got ghost guy died, and her wife Autumn Moon also died in the charcoal under the waterfall pool
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beer! Beer! (2020)
"Beer! Beer!" is an "anti-romantic comedy" set in the early morning following a wild party in Berlin. When Tao, a Chinese guy, meets Sebastian, a local German. As they seem to get more and more intimate with each other, suddenly a mattress changes everything...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Snake in Home (2018)
The C-list TV actor Jonnie Zhang decides to change career as an estate agent. While preparing for the interview, he hires a cleaner to tidy up his long non-visited mansion. A cleaner receives a task to a vacant house, and she decides to stay over night realizing that the bus service has been suspended. Out of every clue hidden in the house, she fantasizes its whole family and secrets, along with her own previous life she comes across.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Clockwork Bunny (2019)
An orphan mutters his personal history in The Good Place. He is getting louder and louder because he doesn’t want his history to be locked in the small dark room forever just as his body has suffered. Little Bunny is who he says the most intimate person in his life. It turns out he and Little Bunny share the same history.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
fragile women (2018)
At a picnic in the countryside, the woman accidentally strikes a shuttlecock into water. The man leaps into the river and then I hear the mountain wind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
On that Afternoon (2017)
On that afternoon, an old man quarrels with the driver on a bus that runs between the old town and the new.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rainclouds Over Wushan (1996)
A policeman investigates an introverted signal-station manager suspected of raping a hotel clerk.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Boring Life (2019)
Winter, Urban Villages in Beijing. Daqing is a fool, Daqing Family and three young people living in the courtyard together. Daqing always mends the sky on the roof, Laishun likes to stay on the roof and read books. Daqing’s dog has been barking. Xiaofei and Ajun couldn’t sleep.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Portrait of Love?
The closest matches to The Portrait of Love are The Kindness of Strangers (2019), The Pumpkin Eater (1964) and What Maisie Knew (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Portrait of Love?
Start with The Kindness of Strangers (2019), the closest match to The Portrait of Love.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Portrait of Love?
Charm City Kings (2020), rated 7.8/10 by 508 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Portrait of Love?
Caught by the Tides (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like The Portrait of Love?
Yes: Caught by the Tides (2024), The Boys from Fengkuei (1983) and Pickpocket (1997).
How are movies similar to The Portrait of Love chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Portrait of Love, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.